Things That Are Important

That title is a bit vague, but we’ve booked April with events that encompass a lot of what the Guild values: International perspectives, freedom of speech, access to what nourishes us (both body and self), and transformative literature.

This month, you can look forward to another evening of community and poetry at our April Palabra Pura, curated by Eduardo Arocho and co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. It features Laurie Ann Guerrero, who was recently named Poet Laureate of San Antonio—we’ll cheers to that. Arocho has also brought Rich Villar, whose voice has been crucial to national conversations on new Latino literature. As usual, we’re bringing out the open mic in case you’d like to share your own inner-poet laureates.

We also have an exciting, expansive Applied Words this month that addresses the plight of exiled authors. On April 25 and 26, the Guild will be screening segments from the Al Jazeera produced documentary, Poets of Protest. Even better: We brought two of the featured poets of protest—Manal Al-Sheikh and Mazen Maarouf—from their respective places of refuge to read some of their work and participate in conversations.

Accompanying these readings and screenings, we will present a lecture by Helge Lunde, the Executive Director of International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN)—the organization which has helped keep Manal and Mazen—as well as countless writers—safe from oppression.

This subject is of great importance to us at the Guild. And our mighty Captain, John Rich (Director), has been invited by ICORN to attend their General Assembly inLjubljana, Slovenia from May 21–24, 2014, in order to learn from other cities how Chicago can become an official safe haven for authors endangered by politically motivated threats or persecution.

Finally, we are working with the American Writers Museum to produce mini-Brooksday events; as well, we’ll have a delicious live GuildCast held in conjunction with Studs Terkel Festival that discusses Food Justice (there will be snacks).

So, you see how this month talks about what we value—Guild fans are also on that list. We’ll see you soon…